Deucalion and Pyrrha Flemish school, 18th century

Deucalion and Pyrrha Flemish school, 18th century
Flemish school, 18th century

Technique: oil painting on canvas
Dimensions: 103 x 170 cm

The represented subject, or" Deucalion and Pyrrha throw the stones from which a new human race is born ", is taken from the first book of Ovid's Metamorphoses.

The two protagonists, husband and wife, are the only survivors (after a sudden flood) of a corrupt lineage and they turn to the goddess Themes,  of which we see the Temple in the background, to try to repopulate the desert world. The goddess orders them to veil their heads and throw stones behind them, from which the metamorphosis and relative transformation into men and women takes place. It is likely that the author, from the Flemish School, was inspired by the third engraving on the myth of Deucalion and Pyrrha made for Virgil Solis' Metamorphoses Ovidii in 1563, of which he faithfully reproduces the position and movements of the two main characters, as well as the posture of some newborns. The image, in which the two characters throw stones, also recalls the engraving by Bernard Salomon of 1557, but it enlarges the scene and overturns it. Small defects